The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a pneumatic tire having a noise damper, more particularly to a method for fixing a noise damper to the inner surface of a vulcanized tire.
In order to reduce a tire noise generated during running, a noise damper made of a sponge material and disposed in a tire cavity has been proposed, for example, as disclosed in Japanese patent application publication No. 2003-063208.
Such a noise damper prevents or interrupts resonances of the tire cavity, namely, vibrations of the air filled therein. Further, as the damper is adhered to the inside of the tread portion, vibrations of the tread portion can be reduced.
During running, the tread portion is deformed such that the part in the ground contacting patch becomes relatively flat whereas the remaining major part is generally cylindrical. Accordingly, the boundary between the flat part and the cylindrical part has a relatively small radius of curvature. The boundary having such small-radius-curvature moves relatively around the tire axis as the tire rotates. Accordingly, a damper fixed to the inner surface of the tread portion is repeatedly subjected to bending deformation and compressive and tensile strain.
Therefore, the noise damper potentially tends to separate partially from the tire during long-term use or under high-temperature or very cold service conditions.
On the other hand, double-sided adhesive tapes are now widely used in various fields as being a simple and easy way of fixation. But, a long-term use within a pneumatic tire is, for the double-sided adhesive tapes, yet an unknown category of usage, and a method for evaluating the double-sided adhesive tapes suitable for tires is not yet established.